The American professional cyclist Matteo Jorgenson has won the semi-classic Across Flanders, which was marred by a serious fall involving his Belgian captain Wout Van Aert. The 24-year-old from the Visma-Lease a Bike team emerged from a breakaway group on Wednesday after 188.6 kilometers in Waregem, ahead of the Norwegian Jonas Abrahamsen and the Swiss Stefan Küng.
At the traditional overture to the Tour of Flanders cycling monument on Sunday, Jorgenson, who had already won Paris-Nice at the beginning of March, followed his teammate Christophe Laporte (France) as the winner. However, the loss of top star Van Aert, who may have been seriously injured, weighs heavily on the Visma team. “I saw Wout’s fall up close, it looked really bad,” said Jorgenson: “My thoughts are with him.”
Van Aert cried and screamed in pain as he was placed on a stretcher and taken into an ambulance. There was initially no exact information regarding his injuries. In addition to van Aert, former Danish world champion Mads Pedersen and Eritrean Biniam Girmay were also involved in the mass crash 67 kilometers from the finish, in which a dozen riders fell at high speed.
Van Aert’s yellow Visma jersey was almost completely torn, with large abrasions visible on his back. Van Aert had already had a painful fall in the E3 Harelbeke one-day race last Friday. He was considered one of the big favorites for the Tour of Flanders, where up to 750,000 fans are expected to attend Belgium’s biggest sporting event on Easter Sunday.
Published/Updated: Tom Mustroph, Sanremo Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 David Lindenfeld Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5
The German veteran John Degenkolb showed a strong race and was very active in the first chasing group. However, the former Roubaix winner was unable to intervene in the fight for victory. The only German winner of “Dwars door Vlaanderen” remains Olaf Ludwig in 1992, and since then no German professional has finished in the top three.
